Air leaking between throttle body and intake coupler

[maz030]

Hey guys I was wondering if I could possibly get some help. Two days ago I installed a JTL intake and tune. Car runs great after the install however I have a leak between the intake coupler and throttle body. I can feel the air if I put my hand by the throttle body. I also feel a slight misfire during idle which is what made me check the intake for a leak. I tightened the bolts on the clamp and held the tube in place firmly against the throttle body while tightening the bolts. There is less air blowing out now but I can still feel some and I still feel a misfire. I then disassembled the intake and put it back together (this time i put the coupler on the throttle body first, then I placed the tube inside it) but I still have a dreaded leak. Can someone please give me some advice or a trick to properly install the intake? Is it possible I got a bad coupler or could over tightening the clamp screws cause this also? Any help is greatly appreciated! The vehicle is an 07 GT.

 

[07 Boss]

Hey guys I was wondering if I could possibly get some help. Two days ago I installed a JTL intake and tune. Car runs great after the install however I have a leak between the intake coupler and throttle body. I can feel the air if I put my hand by the throttle body. I also feel a slight misfire during idle which is what made me check the intake for a leak. I tightened the bolts on the clamp and held the tube in place firmly against the throttle body while tightening the bolts. There is less air blowing out now but I can still feel some and I still feel a misfire. I then disassembled the intake and put it back together (this time i put the coupler on the throttle body first, then I placed the tube inside it) but I still have a dreaded leak. Can someone please give me some advice or a trick to properly install the intake? Is it possible I got a bad coupler or could over tightening the clamp screws cause this also? Any help is greatly appreciated! The vehicle is an 07 GT.

how does the coupler fit on there? It shouldn't be flared out or anything like that. I'm not understanding how it is leaking. It should be flush on there. Maybe I would try a new coupler. maybe if the coupler is too large it won't compress around the opening. That is the only thing I can think of.

 

[maz030]

I'm thinking the coupler I got is too large as well but I wasn't sure if anyone has seen that before. It was an extremely tight fit when I was trying to get it around the intake tube however it seems to slide onto the throttle body without much difficulty. I'm thinking it could possibly be too large.

 

[CJ-]

my JLT supplied coupler seems alittle bigger than the TB but you must have the clamp screw set to the side of the throttle body and not directly centered over the top of the TB inlet or else itll leak around the coupler... also try positioning the clamp so its clamps a hair behind the lip around the TB inlet so atleast there will be more metal material pressing against the coupler.

 

[bujeezus]

Maybe a stupid question. Is the coupler a tube or is 1 end bigger than the other and maybe you've got it reversed. Just thinkin out loud.

 

[maz030]

Hey CJ, Thank you for the suggestion about moving the clamps a little bit behind the lip around the throttle body. I will try that. I took my car to the shop last week because I noticed it was leaking oil (the threads on the drain plug, not the oil pan itself, were damaged for some reason) and I asked them if they could stop the air leak but even a shop couldn't do it so I'm pretty sure I wasn't making any mistakes. I called American Muscle to see if I could return it and they told me I have to get a shop order from the shop I took it too? Now this isn't difficult but I think that's ridiculous that I have to do that. This is the third time I have received faulty products from them in only the past couple months. I'm never ordering from them again! Bujeezus that's not a stupid question. I thought that too but both sides are an equal size.

 

[CJ-]

no problem, if worse come to worst, you can always use a long single zip tie to get a complete seal... actually i might end up doing that just for piece of mind.

 

[maz030]

Well it's still leaking and still has the slight misfire. I'm just going to put the stock airbox back on and load the stock tune. I'll probably buy the Ford Racing CAI instead of the JLT CAI from another vender. This entire JLT unit had terrible fitment everywhere. I'm pretty sure the heat shield is poking the heat guard on the hood (definitely not the only one with that issue) because I'm having trouble closing the hood and I had trouble screwing in the MAF sensor because of shoddy workmanship on the intake tube MAF opening. Because of this, I'm now fairly certain the leak is being caused by the intake tube. I think it is off by a little bit and causing the leak. Again I think it was just shoddy workmanship.

 

[CJ-]

Yeah i know what your talking about, some people had that same issue with the heat shield, alittle trimming with a pair of wire cutters solves that problem.

I did notice how poor the craftsmanship was where the MAF mount is molded into the plastic tube. luckily the rubber seal on my MAF was thick and soft enough to seal it.

Well another option which is probably the one you should go with before tossing out your JLT, go in person to performance shops with your intake and the coupler and find one that fits tightly.

 

[46addict]

+1 on revisiting the coupler. Also might be a good idea to use T-bolt clamps, even though they might be overkill for what you're doing.

 

[maz030]

Thanks for the advice but i've since returned the intake and got a Roush unit instead that fits well. I had a mechanic see if he could stock the leak with the JLT unit before I returned it and something was off and just not fitting well.